UNMC Off the Clock – Shellberg’s love of horses began at 3-weeks

From the looks of Jackie Shellberg’s cubicle on the second-floor of the Health Professions Tracking Center at UNMC, it’s obvious the 22-year-old is passionate about horses.

The overhead bins are lined with trail riding photographs and the walls are covered with horse decorations, including a calendar and a painting she made herself of her favorite animal.

“I was on a horse at 3-weeks old,” Shellberg said. “My brother and I rode with my mom when we were 1 and started riding by ourselves at 4 or 5-years-old.”

Jackie Shellberg, a project associate with the Health Professions Tracking Center, recently learned how to rope. Here she is seen trying to lasso a calf on her horse, Cody.

Shellberg was a senior in high school when her only brother died suddenly at the age of 15 from a brain aneurysm. His death brought the family closer and reinforced their enthusiasm for horses.

An Oakland, Iowa, resident, Shellberg rides mostly on her family’s six acres of pasture 40 miles east of Omaha. A 24-year-old horse named Roanie is her most beloved.

“I hope he’s alive when I have kids,” Shellberg said. “I grew up on that horse.”

After years of showing horses and barrel racing, she most recently learned to rope.

“I wanted to master something new and I love it,” Shellberg said. “It’s the biggest thrill ever.”

The art of heading (lassoing the horns) and heeling (lassoing the feet) is used for entertainment in today’s rodeos, but it wasn’t always that way.

The Brushy Creek trails in Fort Dodge are one of Shellberg’s favorite places to go horseback riding. She also rides on her family’s six acres of land in rural Oakland, Iowa.

“Years ago, they didn’t have 4-wheelers and trailers with chutes to round up the cattle,” Shellberg said. “(Roping) is how they did it back then. It’s part of history — what you had to do if you were a cattle rancher.”

It’s too cold to practice her roping skills outside right now, but anytime it’s at least 30 degrees and she’s not working as a project associate to track health care professionals, Shellberg is either on a horse or wants to be on one.

That holds true to the time she was badly injured after being bucked off a colt she was breaking to ride.

“Even when I broke my back in three places, I couldn’t wait to get back on a horse,” she said. “I’ll never quit riding.”

“Even when I broke my back in three places, I couldn’t wait to get back on a horse. I’ll never quit riding.” Jackie Shellberg

Shellberg remembers the name of the horse that bucked her off — Rose — but not much else from the incident two years ago.

“I had a pretty bad concussion, but could walk within a week,” she said.

At the time, Shellberg was working at a nursing home while earning her nursing degree, but had to transfer because she couldn’t lift more than 10 pounds. She also had a stint as a florist, but enjoys her career at UNMC more than all of her previous positions.

“I love my job here,” she said. “I tell my boss all the time I feel so fortunate to have this job. I’ve learned so much.”

Shellberg started at UNMC almost one year ago in March after earning her associate’s degree in business administration from Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs. She eventually would like to go back to school, but knows it would mean giving up her free time, of which 35 to 40 summer hours a week is spent with her horses.

“I’ve never had Nintendo, Game Boy or Play Station, but I have had my horses,” she said. “I’m outside all the time.”

It’s a good thing her boyfriend, Brandon, is just as into horses and riding as she is, otherwise he might not see her. The two met four years ago in September at — where else — the River City Roundup.

“It’s kind of hard because we are both very competitive,” Shellberg said. “I always tell him he can rope better, but I can ride better.”